Chloé / Fall 2013 RTW

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Backstage at Chloé, creative director Clare Waight Keller was talking about the inspiration for her fall collection, specifically power and the strange places it can reside, such as, the girl coming home on the night bus. Now, chances are you are reading this in the United States, and this particular concept of after-dark public transportation has passed you by, so to speak. But all you need to do is picture the girl who is taking a very British phenomenon of a social melting pot on wheels. She is younger, cooler, a tad subversive, mixing up tough, utilitarian pieces, like a parka, over something ironically feminine like a pretty skirt, hefty kicky boots, a beaten-up bag slung over her shoulder, and a preference for piercings that dangle from any point on her ears.

Bring her across la manche to Paris, as Waight Keller did, and she becomes quite a different creature; her look takes on an elevation akin to hitting the “Up” button, ascending from the street to the 104th floor in seconds. The coat could be a black felted wool duffle, a bright blue doubleface zippered wool cape, or a pearl gray wild and woolly shearling, all with a shrug-it-on and slouch-it-off oversize shape. (Incidentally, in a quick hand-held weigh-in of Waight Keller’s fabrics, I am pleased to report that they are far lighter than they look, which is only a good thing, particularly in this heavier-than-heavy season.) The skirt—A-line, to the knee—might come in blue tweed with a weighty gleaming zipper running up the side, or a black-and-brown soft-as-down fur. Those bags—sporty, substantial, and slung onto the shoulder, or like scaled-down briefcases, with elaborate metal clasps—are rendered chez Chloé in a richly patinated claret crocodile or luscious calfskin leather. And as for those piercings, here you can fake it, with a silver chain clasp suspended from the top of the ear, and best seen on Marike Le Roux, who has chopped all her hair off, and, if there is any justice in the world, is about to have a major season ahead of her; rare is the girl who makes you sit up and take notice, particularly now, but one Mia Farrow by Vidal Sassoon crop later, Le Roux did it.

Another thing to note. Some of those girl designers who favor a certain toughness—that would be Waight Keller, as well as Phoebe Philo at Céline, or long-standing members of this particular sisterhood, like Jil Sander—while offering up pants for fall, are really placing their bets on the skirt, whether cut with a certain geometry, as at Chloé, or curvaceously hugging the hips, à la Sander and Céline. Worn with a big coat and a pair of kick-ass high boots, anyone who identifies with the girl on the bus is going to want one.